Have you ever wondered what would have happened if Pentecost had never taken place? Without the coming of the Holy Spirit, we would have no union with Christ, no power for ministry and no witness to the ends of the earth. We as a covenant people simply wouldn’t exist!
The Analogy of Giving Birth
I love hearing women share about how their children were born. The accounts are as varied as the children that they represent. Some friends seem to have had relatively easy labours, with few complications. Others endured hours of unbearable, seemingly endless pain. But these stories have one thing in common, that the event itself was punctiliar. In biological terms, I can only give birth to the same child once. And no matter how straightforward someone’s deliveries are, that’s good news!
I find this analogy helpful as we consider what Pentecost means for us today. Is Acts 2 a paradigm for personal experience? Is it a manual for how to plant a local church? Or is it rather the birth story of the Church with a capital C? In this article, we will discover the answer to this question.
The Uniqueness of Pentecost
Pentecost is therefore tremendously important, for on that day something extraordinary, radical, and awesome happened: The promised Holy Spirit came to dwell once and for all in his people! And this in a way unlike any that preceded it, for it was final, complete, and permanent.[i] No longer would the manifestation of God’s presence be centred in the temple in Jerusalem. From this day onward, we his people would be his temple.
The Promise of the Spirit Prophesied
Jesus promised his disciples on numerous occasions that he would send the Spirit (Lk 11:13, 24:49, Jn 14:16-17, 26, 15:26, Ac 1:4-8). But lest we see this promise as being given in a vacuum, John the Baptist had foretold the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Mt 3:11, Mk 1:8, Lk 3:16, Jn 1:33). And well before the NT era, the prophets spoke of a day in which the Spirit would dwell among his people (Isa 32:15, 44:3-4, Jer 31:31-34, Ez 36:23-28, Joel 2:28-29).
The Universal Sign (v. 1-4)
In Acts 2, we witness the reception of this long-awaited gift. Verse 1 tells us that they were all together in one place. To discover to whom “all” refers, we must turn to Acts 1:12-15, where the apostles had gathered in the upper room along with the extended group of disciples, who numbered about 120 (v. 15) and included “the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus” (v. 13). The women likely included Mary Magdalene and those who along with her had been eyewitnesses of the cross, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. What happened next is nothing short of amazing:
2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entirehouse where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Wind and fire are “audible and visible signs that announced the coming of the Spirit, and gave an impressive character to the event; they underscored the power of the Spirit.”[iv] The phrases “each of them” and “all were filled” indicate that the gift of the Spirit was poured out indiscriminately on everyone present in that place, and not just on the apostles.
The Amazed Multitude (v. 5-13)
Present that day were likely men and women[vii] of the Jewish diaspora who had resettled in Jerusalem at an earlier date[vi]. While gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Firstfruits, they hear the disciples speaking in their native languages. These people are world travellers with a certain amount of snobbery, given the way they inquire “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?” (v. 7). For Galilee was not exactly known as the epicentre of international cultures. As they hear these Galileans speak the languages they had learned in distant lands, they are amazed, bewildered, perplexed. Today, this would be the equivalent of people from all over the world visiting Disneyland and being greeted by locals in perfect Mandarin, Farsi, German, Wolof, etc.
Some in the crowd that day could find no natural explanation for this supernatural behaviour and concluded that the disciples were drunk (v. 13). This just goes to show the hardness of heart of some that in the face of such a powerful sign, they would choose to mock and ridicule rather than humbly seek the truth.
The Apostolic Message (vv. 14-36)
Peter stands to address the crowd. And, while the 120 were all filled with the Spirit, he now “stands with the eleven.” Thus, we see a distinction being made between the extended group of disciples and the 12 apostles. Peter argues that far from them being drunk, this is a fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel 2:28-32.
17 “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
18 even on my male servants and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
The Last Days
What exactly does the term “last days” mean? Simply put, all the days of the new covenant are the last days.[viii] They began with the advent of Jesus Christ, have continued until today, and will continue until his return.[ix]
One scholar highlights in these verses the adjustment and equalization through Christ of the unequal status of differing groups that prevailed in the world.[x] God has kept his promise by pouring out his Spirit on all flesh: on his daughters as well as his sons, on the young as well as the old, on free men and women and on his female and his male servants.
Supernatural Cosmic Phenomena (v. 19-21)
These include signs in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire (v. 19). And while we can see how the first half of Joel’s prophecy was fulfilled at Pentecost, the second half was not. Verse 20b tells us when its words will be fulfilled: “before the day of the Lord comes…” (v. 20). These prophetic utterances point to the final events before the end. And they speak of the wrath of God that will fall upon those who have rejected his offer of salvation. Yet, even then, hope remains. The concluding verse of the section anticipates God’s grace that his Spirit will soon extend to Peter’s hearers at the end of his sermon (v. 21).
The Work of Christ (v. 22-36)
Next, Peter reminds his hearers that Jesus performed signs and wonders by the hand of God, that he was crucified and that he was raised. And in v. 23, he attributes the death of Christ to:
- His Jewish hearers (“you crucified”)
- The Romans (“lawless men”)
- God himself (“according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God”).
So, Peter doesn’t absolve his hearers of responsibility, but he insists that the cross did not catch God by surprise. Rather it was part of his plan from the beginning.
The Promised Son of David
Peter quotes a prophecy from Psalm 16 which was only partially, metaphorically fulfilled in the life of David, the fulfillment of which would come centuries later in the resurrection of his promised Son. He explains the impossibility of David being the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy since his tomb attests to the fact that he indeed saw corruption.
Jesus, however, did not see corruption, and Peter, the other apostles, and the whole company of disciples bore witness to his resurrection and his ascension. The same Jesus who weeks prior had been nailed to a cross has now been enthroned in heaven as David’s rightful heir. Peter’s sermon reaches its crescendo in v. 36. That’s the central point of his message, what everything he’s said has been leading up to:
36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
The 3,000 Souls (v. 37-41)
In response to Peter’s powerful message, the multitude is “cut to the heart.” The bad news Peter just enumerated was a death sentence, but the good news he proclaims in this invitation is lifegiving indeed. The remedy to their miserable condition is threefold:
- Repent
- Be baptized
- Receive forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit
We see the stunning conclusion in v. 41. The group of disciples swells in one day from 120 to over 3,000! That’s 25-fold! Imagine what it would look like for 3,000 people to be baptized in a single day. It must’ve taken the apostles hours to execute such a herculean feat, even with the help of the 120.
The Church’s Timeless Mission
Much like the Jewish feast of first fruits they had gathered to celebrate, this crowd of over 3,000 was the first fruits of an abundant harvest that would be gathered throughout the book of Acts and Church history all the way to the present! And we get to be a part of that universal, invisible, multiethnic, worldwide Church of Jesus Christ. The mission of the Church remains the same as it was on the day Peter preached, to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth, taking with us the same timeless message this passage proclaims:
Because Jesus is the risen and ascended Lord, repent and receive forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
May this awesome truth fuel our love for Christ, for his Church, and for the lost as we seek to be his witnesses until he returns.
[i] John Peter Lange et al., A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Acts (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008), 28.
[ii] Richard N. Longenecker, “The Acts of the Apostles,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: John and Acts, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 9 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981), 269.
[iii] John Peter Lange et al., A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Acts (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008), 33.
[iv] John Peter Lange et al., A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Acts (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008), 28.
[v] John Peter Lange et al., A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Acts (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008), 30.
[vi] David G. Peterson, The Acts of the Apostles, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009), 135.
[vii] Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Biblical Studies Press, 2005).
[viii] John Peter Lange et al., A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Acts (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008), 42.
[ix] John Peter Lange et al., A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Acts (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008), 41.
[x] John Peter Lange et al., A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Acts (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008), 41.
[xi] Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 318.
